English

In the Rider University English Department, students develop creativity and skills in language, writing, analysis, and critical thinking in literature and writing courses. Employers actively seek employees with these skills. English majors go on to be authors, editors, journalists, teachers, professors, librarians, executives, and lawyers, as well as work in media, public relations, and other areas. Graduates of the English Department have published poetry, fiction, plays, and screen plays.

Rider students majoring in English can focus their studies in the literature track or the writing track. Both concentrations offer substantial grounding in the rich heritage of world literature and in the cultural diversity of contemporary life. Recently the Department added a cinema studies track for undergraduates who wish to concentrate on film analysis.

Why Should You Choose Rider University if you are going to major in English?

Marketable skills: Our faculty teach students to think critically and to write effectively.

The Literature Track: Students who are primarily interested in literature can choose from a wide variety of courses and subjects ranging from the Anglo-Saxon epic, Beowulf, to poets and novelists of the 1990s, from nineteenth-century American slave narratives to dramatic and fictional works by Shakespeare, Woolf, Faulkner, and Hurston.

The Writing Track: Those who want to primarily develop their writing can choose a concentration offering intensive instruction in many kinds of writing, including creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry), critical reviewing, and business writing.

The Cinema Studies Track: Those who are drawn to film might choose a concentration in cinema studies and enroll in a variety of classes on film analysis, history, and theory, courses which also emphasize interpretive and writing skills.

Support: As an English major at Rider, you will receive attention and support to develop your talents and skills as you learn to write intelligently and persuasively, to read with pleasure and understanding, and to strengthen the powers of your imagination.

Approachable Faculty: You will be taught and advised by helpful, accessible faculty members who are truly interested in teaching.